Wednesday, May 10, 2006

You Gotta a Friend (and a contest!)

New and Improved Epic Edition*Now with pictures!!! Because WonderBaby is a sweet, sweet addiction... *And further notes on The Great Mom/Mommy/Mama Blogger Love-In of 2006!*And a somber addendum.

It is the post that NEVER ENDS...!

GRATUITOUS BABY PHOTO

The other day, I was provoked by this post, which raised a lot of interesting observations and questions about friendship and judgment, subjects on which I have at least a half dozen emotionally-charged and pedantic (because I can do both! At once!) partially drafted posts that have been abandoned because of the aforementioned emotional-chargedness and pedantry (which, trust me, you do not want to see, because, um, any post in which I segue madly between Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, The Velveteen Rabbit, Jacques Derrida and that episode of Friends where Monica and Rachel start smacking each other and then Phoebe grabs them both by the hair and calls them her bitches is a bit much, even for me, which is a saying a lot. A LOT.)

So, I was talking about this great post, which challenged me with this statement: I don't know if it's possible to become heart-friends with somebody without seeing her face as she laughs at you or tells you that she loves you.

I think that we all probably have different understandings of what a heart-friend is. I know who my own heart-friends are in real life: that very small group of human beings who I’ve variously lived with, grown up with, danced with, drunk with, sung along to Patsy Cline with, cursed with, sniffed cherry blossoms and peonies with, co-authored academic papers with, discussed reality TV (unironically) with, drunk with, made babies with, laughed with, and cried with. Those human beings with whom I’ve been living the best and the worst and the most precious moments of my life.

(Yes, I just sacrificed good grammar for the sake of that syntax-mangled run-on sentence. For the rhythm of language! For friendship! That’s how committed I am!)

Good people. Good mothers. Good women. Women (and some men) with whom, I think, I could be friends. Good friends.

And then I think, are they not, some of them, many of them, friends already? These are women whose presence in my world – even if that world unfolds partially on the flickering screen of a laptop computer – make that world a richer, fuller world. They make that world a better place, a much better place.

So even though I don’t see their faces when I laugh or cry or commiserate with them, they are friends.

(Pause for dramatic effect. Cue cheesy Whitney Houston song.)

Which is why, when my spies told me that my crazy blogtard (nope, no linkage) was running a contest to find the Worst KoolAid Mom (still no linkage), I got really, really mad. These be my friends you slaggin,' yo. And because, um? Apart from the general slavish evilness of the whole enterprise, holding a which-mommyblogger-sucks-most contest that culminates on Mothers Day Weekend is like putting a bounty on Santa’s head and scheduling the execution for Christmas Eve. But because nothing good ever comes from futile anger at ressentiment-fueled Last Men, I decided that the best use for my energies was to do something positive.

So I am announcing my own contest, which is not so much a contest as it is a call-to-celebration. This is a summons for love letter posts to your bloggy friends - the bloggers you love or think that you’re gonna love or that you maybe just wanna fool around with a bit - to be tossed around the Internet in a big, kissy, KoolAid slurping, mommyblog-loving frenzy in which we all get celebrated as Mothers of the Week. So: sometime between now and Mother’s Day (Sunday), write a post about the women in the blogosphere that have made some difference in your world. It doesn’t have to focus on just one blogger (I don’t know that I’ll be able to restrict my celebratory post to just one blogger), but you absolutely must single out the objects of your celebration and give them lots of linky love. And if you want to write about how Dooce or Amalah or some other supa-stah or near-stah blogger has enriched your life, that’s great, but if you do that, you are required, by the terms of this assignment, to also celebrate a lesser known blogger (extra points if you seek out someone who is not on your blogroll and write about what a great discovery they are.) By this weekend, I want to see all of our names in virtual linky lights.

When you’ve posted your Ode to Amazing MommyBloggers, let the object(s) of your affection know. And send the link to your post to me, and I’ll put all the links together in a Big Honkin’ Momma Love post in honor of Mothers Day and us and the totally awesome mothers that we are. (Oh, and spread word of this around. As I recently pointed out here, I am not an supah-stah or even a comet or even a random piece of space junk, so word won’t spread if we rely solely on HBM traffic. Talk it up!)

The point of this is to make this week the week that we are all Mother of the Week. This is the week to really celebrate our friendships, new and old and as-yet-undiscovered. This week is our week. Make it so.

******

**To be clear - you can write about as many mama-bloggers as you like. You want to name 5 Mothers of the Week? Great; the more, the merrier. Just remember to shine on each mama with a bright, red carpet-worthy spotlight (and, of course, give good linkage.) And: you don't need to be a mommyblogger to post an ode to your favorites. Anyone with a blog (dads? y'all can feel free to step up here) is more than welcome to share up the love. And, and: don't forget to link back to me so that I can include your post in the Great Love-In Round-Up Mother's Day CardPost (which, note, may go up Monday in the event that Sunday sees me buried in a mountain of bon-bons.) And and and and: Many thanks to those of you who have already posted! Rock-on KoolAid sistahs!

67 Comments:

Nice idea! I will go link to this post now (despite the fact that I am "working" right now.) A while ago I wrote about how much I am enjoying getting to know Bridgermama and her family. Lucky me, I get to see her electronically and in person!

I was thinking the worst mother ever award would be great and we can all flame each other with our dirty little secrets. Like I bribe my 2 year old with gummy life savers so she won't cry when the sitter comes.

HA. Just kidding. I think it's fabulous. I'm all over it. However, I'm going to be on vaca and I'm going to miss it all.

You had me *sniff* at Kool-aid. What a fanfuckintastic idea!!!!! And thanks for your committment to friendship and the rhythm of language... those of us who blindly mangle syntax on a daily basis didn't even notice!

FAAAAAN-tastic idea. I've been trying to compose a post like this for a while but didn't know how to write it without sounding like a comment whore (who me?) or that girl who would do all the cheerleader's term papers just for the honor of being able to sit at the cool kids table.

I am in. Despite the fact that the next 3 days will be the busiest of the ENTIRE YEAR for me at work. I love this idea too much not to celebrate with ya. I don't know I'll be good at narrowing it down too much. I'll try and get something up by Saturday.

I saw that (ahem) other contest too and I thought, wow, it takes a lot of energy to come up with a contest simply to insult people and try and hurt them - people who you've never met and influence your life not one bit. Really. Don't get it. Life's too fucking short.

My post is up but I don't have a list - just the one who has so far inspired me (I am new to blogging and am looking specifically for people in here of my own age-group, thats baby-boomers about to or already reached sixty) ... lucky me, I found rocrebelgranny who again today has inspired me to post my own Mother's Day warm & fuzzy memory.

Now I am off to find out what this link and backlink thing is all about.Della